Goodbye, 2021!

Wow, 2021 went by entirely too fast. My general sentiment around the year is “woof” if that makes sense. Below, I have a few high level things that happened that will help me remember what the hell happened during this blur.

January #

I was in Lincoln, Nebraska. The meme of this month was Twisted tea.

I put up my synthesizers for sale. I think this is around the time I joined my friends discord, and created art like this

And it snowed a lot, so here’s in January's picture of my dogs

February #

We also got this heartbreaking line in WandaVision. I cried TWICE watching this show! WTF!

March #

I finally joined TikTok. I also found a way to get my Brother’s dad, Chris, out to see Nick for his birthday.

Also this meme and this picture of my dogs.

Most importantly… on March 27th I sent a letter to my father, Adam, who didn’t know I existed, telling him about who I am… it took a LOT to get the courage to send that letter… plus I got a little drunk. Thank you to my partner Gabs for supporting me!!

April #

Him

Falcon & the winter soldier wrapped and we waiting for Loki. Also Pokémon snap came out! Another wild thing happened this month… the letter I had sent was received by my new mother, Kris, and on April 11th I talked to my father, Adam, for the first time ever! Later we had a FaceTime for about 3 hours and toward the end I cried like a BABY! I’m so grateful for Gabriella for helping me through this. She made the experience so much better and was so encouraging… it’s genuinely amazing to have a larger family now.

May #

I finally started watching twin peaks! I really enjoy David Lynch now.

We ended the month by going to platte state park for my now at-the-time girlfriend’s birthday (she’s my FIANCÉ now!!)

June #

We kicked off the month with Gabriella’s birthday! My dogs namesake month was great! Our strawberries fruited so much! We should have made jam in retrospect.

Also here’s a terrible meme

I also took Gab horseback riding for our anniversary!!!

Then, June 18th, we made our way down to FLORIDA to meet my dad IRL for the first time!!

And then… I bought a car with Gabriella!!! And we also committed to moving to Austin, Texas!

We also took a trip down to padre island for a family gathering of Gabs… and oh boy it was fun!
Finally, during the month of June, I was offered a position at Ionic as a software engineer on Stencil! This was my dream job. I’ve used Stencil for years. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to actually help make it!

July #

I started my new job at Ionic!

I was eager to get deep into the purpose of Stencil and often over-committed in order to more deeply understand what the hell it was doing. I sat in on every sales call, every discovery call, I asked so many questions of everyone, and I worked my ass off to give people more confidence in Stencil.

Here’s a pile of our stuff that we’d mostly eventually sell!

August #

Had our first Stencil office hours!

Gabriella replaced my old spreadsheets hat as a late anniversary gift!

And I proposed to the love of my life!

Then on August 31st, Gab and I packed up our little life and moved on down to Austin!

September #

We explored Austin and I kept digging deep into Stencil!

October #

We dressed up as Han, Leia, Chewy, and Yoda. I also sprained my ankle so bad and wore the FUVK out of those lady boots in that Han Solo costume!!

Photo credit Grant Parsons!!

I was also offered a promotion to become the Product Manager of Stencil!! I asked my team if it was okay, they said it’d be great, and so I accepted! I was able to help develop a product strategy for Stencil, and lean into my strengths.

November #

December #

And here comes the last month. This one started off pretty challenging. The first Monday of the month, I was met with being let go from Ionic.

That left me with a lot of time to just… decompress. I had put a lot into my time at Ionic. I’ve used Stencil ever since it was released, so when I was let go I was pretty dumb-struck! I took the month to sit back, relax, try to read comics, and not catastrophize about what’s next for me. With everything happening in the world, and losing my chance to help get Stencil back on track, I felt vulnerable and sad.

Fortunately, I have good people in my life. Gabriella has been a huge help. My father, mother, and grandma have also been amazing helps. Gabriella’s family has been an amazing help as well.

As well as all my friends in Discord. We all had the chance to have a Friendsgiving the week after I was laid off, and WOW I’m very grateful for that time!

I also started watching the original X-Men Animated cartoon series for the first time!

Plus I made some amazing ramen for Christmas

Finally, I had my 31st birthday. Gab is amazing at making birthday’s special, it’s like her super power.

Tagged: slice of life